Planning Productive Work for Married Women in a Low-Income Settlement in Lusaka: A Case for Small-Scale Handicrafts Industry

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Title:	Planning Productive Work for Married Women in a Low-Income Settlement in Lusaka: A Case for Small-Scale Handicrafts Industry
Author:	Hansen, Karen T.
Year:	1982
Periodical:	African Social Research
Issue:	33
Period:	June
Pages:	211-223
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zambia
Subjects:	women's employment crafts Labor and Employment Women's Issues Development and Technology Economics and Trade
Abstract:	Handicrafts are black sheep in the literature on development projects for women. The author nevertheless suggests that. given special circumstances, the case can be argued for handicrafts production on a small-scale industry basis. She argues that handicrafts may economically benefit one specific segment of women: the middle-aged married women in the city's low-income areas, adult at independence and barely literate, who today are at or near the end of child bearing years. The author argues that a development project, with an innovative approach, must be aimed at these women. After brief background information on the socio-economic situation of the women the author describes the special skills these women possess, what they do with them, using what kinds of resources and with what results. She sketches how a plan for a small-scale handicrafts industry might be structured and pinpoints the liabilities of such a plan. The data are based on fielwork (1971-72) in Mtendere township in Lusaka, and on a follow-up study (1981). Notes, ref.